Canon EOS 6D and the Outdoors

The Canon EOS 6D is my favorite!

Why do I say it is my favorite camera?  Well, that will take a while to answer but to give it a quick answer, it is one of the most powerful yet easy to use camera’s I have ever owned.  To say that Canon has it figured out is an understatement. The ease at which you can get professional photos using this camera is utterly astounding.  Yes, the price tag is a little higher than ones such as the T7i and lower end camera’s, but the capabilities and quality makes it more than worth the extra cost.  Add to this the fact that it is a full frame camera as opposed to a cropped, and you will see why this is my favorite.

The Canon EOS 6D has a lot of features that other camera’s do not but as stated above, that comes with a cost.  One of the costs that is not always apparent, are lenses.  Full frame lenses are more expensive but their quality is one of the reasons for this.  While the stock kit lens that comes with the camera is definitely a nice lens, you will quickly find that you get bored with it.  You will want to grab a few other lenses in order to allow you to capture the images you want.  I have three main lenses that I use with this camera.

Canon EF 50mm 1:1.8

This lens is a great for capturing sharp focus photos with blurred backgrounds.

 

 

 

 

Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM

This is my goto wide angle lens for capturing landscapes.

 

 

 

 

Sigma 150-600mm 1:5-6.5 Zoom Lens

This is a the lens I use for wildlife and action photography.

 

 

 

 

This camera is simply awesome for hiking and back country photography.  I also carry it with me when I am Kayaking but I it is kept inside one of the holds until we stop and get out as it not really waterproof.  If you are looking for a camera for Kayaking, I would seriously look into an action camera such the GoPro.  I personally use the GoPro Hero 6 Black for kayaking, skiing, scuba, etc…  The Canon EOS 3D is simply just not made for in person action type photography.  This one of the reasons that the picture quality is amazing on the Canon.  It is because unlike the GoPro, you can attach different lenses and it is the lens that make all the difference in the world.

Okay, Let’s talk Features

When it comes to features on this camera, it is hard to know where to begin.  So, I am going to begin with the feature I use most.

Auto Exposure Bracketing
What exactly is AEB?  Well, it is a little used function that allows you to take three shots at different exposures.  Why do I love this feature?  Simply because of the fact that it allows me to to create HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos.  In basic terms it allows you to capture a greater range of luminosity in your photo by taking different exposures and combining them together in order to capture the best range.  Yes, you could do something similar with a tripod and taking multiple manual photos but when hiking or doing any outdoors activity, do you really want to have to take that time?  The camera does it automatically for you.  Here is an example of what I am talking about.

Below are three shots I took using the Canon EOS 6D AEB feature.  The center one is the normal exposure that I setup on my camera.  To the left is a darker exposure and to the right is a lighter exposure.  All three were taken using the AEB function of my camera.

Now to make something clear here, you need to take RAW (CR2) photos in order to create a true HDR Photo.  So, make sure that another feature that I love, the ability to take both RAW and JPG photos at the same time, is enabled.  I love this feature because I can quickly send of my JPG photos to places such as dropbox or send them up here to the website, yet be able to fully process my photos at a later date.

Below is an example of the above three photos combined into a single HDR JPG file.

As you can see the detail and exposure is amazingly better than the normal exposure in three images above.  This is why I love this Canon EOS 6D feature!

Here are a few others to compare with

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